Fibrous covering and method of making same



Aug. 26, 1930. 1 H. L. I EvrN 1,774,204

FIBROUS COVERING AND METHOD OF MAKING' SAME vFiled Jan. 17, 1927 atenteei Ang. 26, 'lg3d UNITED ,STATES PATENT ori-i HAROLD L.' LEVIN, OF PASSAIC, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR'TO THE FLINTKOTE COMPANY,

F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A C

ORPORATION OF 'MASSACHUSETTS rrnaous covranve .um` METHOD or MAKING SAME Application led January 17, 1927. Serial No. 161,711.

This invention relates to the manufacture of fibrous coverings and particularly that type of covering having a woven or knitted fabric base and finished with a printed design on its exposed or Wearing surface.

Coverings of this character and more particularly, floor coverings, are usually pro-l duced by weaving on power looms, and since this is a somewhat complicated procedure, the product is necessarily expensive, and up to the present time no such coverings have been available at nominal cost.

With the present invention, I am able-to produce a floor covering resembling very closely Woven rugs, and in addition to being very much cheaper than the latter, they surpass them in many respects;

Attempts have been made to produce a cheap floor covering of this type by starting with a coarsely Woven fabric such as burlap as a foundation and forming this into a needle punched fabric. This needle punching of the foundation fabric is effected y superposing over the foundation fabric a bat composed of hair or wool fibers, or both, or any similar fibres either alone or combined with the aforenamed fibers, loosely felted together in a dry condition on a blaiiner, well known in the art." This superposed bat is then partiallydriven or punched through the interstices of the foundation fabric, by means of a needle punch loom (also Well known). At this stage of the process,the fibres project through the bottom face of the fabric (i. e. the face opposite to that upon which the bat was superposed) somewhat loosely. By pulling lightly on the fibres from either side of the products atA this stave of the process, they are easily separated from the foundation fabric. p

In the previous manufacture of rugs of this type, the step of printing over the wearing surface followed this needle punching step without any attempt to lock the fibres in position on the foundation fabric. Obviously a floor covering so produced was unsatisfactory for the reason that the normal traliic to which the wearing surface was subjected, caused the fibres, which projected only loosely through the foundation fabric,

to separate therefrom through abrasionA and friction forming bald spots where the foun` dation fabric became exposed, which, of

course, detract from the ornamental appearance of the covering.

On the other hand, attempts have been made to lock the fibres in place after they have been needle punched through the foundation fabric. use of a cut-back, i. e. a solution of a normally water-insoluble material as rubber.

The disadvantages of material of this type are several,-among them being penetration through the goods with a consequent staining of the face; the fire hazard entailed in the use of suitable organic solvents; and the inability to compound With the cut-back sufficient filler to give a satisfactory degree of adulteration without increasing the viscosity to a point which makes it impractical of applicaton to the needle punched fabric.

There has also been used for this purpose (i. e. to lock the libres in place in the foundation fabric), a natural dispersion of rubber such as rubber latex, but this is objectionable for various reasons and impractical due to the high cost of the rubber hydrocarbon.

N o satisfactor locking means has been found prior to tie present invention which will have none of the objections above enumerated and yet be capable of use in this process to produce a rug at nominal cost.

A paint film is too penetrating, takes too long to dry and is not flexible; a hot asphalt application is also too highly penetrating and Will flow under constant pressure and does not afford sufficient traction; rubber latex is expensive and very troublesome to manipulate since fillers can be incorporated only with difficulty and the latex itself hasv in- These attempts included the f sion alone, made. with soap or'similar dispersive media, is unsatisfactory due to the asphaltic or similar properties of the dry film, which. will tend to iiow and penetrate through the fabric.

The problem is to. obtain sufficient plasticity to fac11itate application of the coating to the fabric without giving rise to penetration of the coating through the fabric.

It has been found that by properly compounding a stable emulsion, all these diiculties are overcome and at the same time there is produced a very inexpensive, waterproof, non-skid floor covering in which the fibres are locked in place in the foundation fabric, and cannot be separated therefrom by foot traffic, sweeping, beating, brushing,

or vacuum cleaning.

As an illustration, the compounded emulsion .used for the purpose may be formed as'follows: To 40.0 pounds, more or less, of previously prepared stable emulsion, and 200 pounds more or less of a non-plastic clay and 40 pounds more or less of red oxide or other suitable pigment. These proportions ma be varied within considerable latitude.

's compound, thinned with water if necessary, may be -applied to the needle punched fabric by means of a convenient doctor arrangement which serves to spread the compound in a lm over the bottom face of the needle punched fabric. The thickness of the film may be predetermined by suitably adjusting the doctor. When this film has dried the fibres are firmly locked in place, and the fabric is now ready to be printed as desired on its top face, using any obvious type of printing apparatus.

The coverin thus produced, in addition to being free om the defects inherent in the coverings of this type previously produced, is waterproof and possessed of fine non-skid properties (i. e. will not slide along the door) and moreover the color design on'its exposed face, produced in the last stage of the process, is permanent-and is not readily obliterated with reasonable usage. It has been readily found in fact, that after a rug produced by the process of the present invention had been in service a reasonable length of time, without any attention whatever, a simple sweeping readily removed all drt and foreign matter from the wearing surface and effectively brought out the vari-colored design thereon.

While, as above stated, a rug produced as described, possesses positive anti-skid properties, these latter may be enhanced by incorporating with the emulsion compound, smallamounts of ground cork, rubber dust, or the like. In addition there may be incorporated relatively small proportions of naphthalene or other vermin-repellent chemicals to impart moth-proof properties well known to the finished product.

, It is to be observed that while the invention is herein described in connection with the use of a needle punched fabric requiring lan interlocking of the punched fibres with the foundation fabric, it may likewise be carried out in conjunction with fabrics other than those known as needle punched fabrics, and in fact with any fabric which lis highly porous and which possesses other be obvious that any coarse y woven fabric,

or an fabric otherwise produced but resembling coarsely woven fabric, might be used in place of the burlap.

The invention may also be used to produce wall coverings, upholstering fabrics, etc., .and is not limited to floor coverings.

The` previously prepared emulsion prior to compoundin heretofore referred to may comprise any esired type of stable emulsion. For instance, it may comprise the type of emulsion described and claimed in U. S. patent to Lester Kirschbraun, No. 1,302,810, in which a solid material is reduced to heated Huid condition, and dispersed in an aqueous medium by means of an inert colloid such as clay. The use of the emulsion prepared in accordance with the disclosure of said patent is preferable, but it is obvious that a soap emulsion or any other type which can be made stable by suitable means might serve vfor the same purpose. In making the initial emulsion, any type of asphalt, pitch, resin, wax, or any combination of these may be used. The emulsifying agent may comprise nely divided materials which exhi it plasticity in paste 'form with water including clay, metallic silicates, oxides, ochre, slate dust and the like.

In this type of emulsion the bitumenitch may comprise 45to 55 percent of 30 penetration steam refined Mexican asphalt more or less, the emulsifying agent 3 to 4% more or less, and the balance Water. In a soa emulsion the saponaceous content may be fi'om one-half to 2% more or less, and the bitumen from -60 to 75% more or less, with the balance water, depending upon the consistency desired. Such emulsion should be stabilized so as to permit the treatment herctoforev described. D

The upper and lower limit of the amount of non-plastic clay or the like which can -be added is not a fixed quantity, but is dependi ent upon the type of emulsifying agent used as well as character of the emulsion. In the illustration given, I have cited non-plastic clay as a filler. It is obvious that any finely divided powdery material having the same general characteristics as clay may be utiized within the contemplation of the present invention.

The purpose of the red oxide is only to color the coating-the amount of this constituent more or less, determining the strength of the color.` It is obvious that any other base in the place of red oxide maybe used to produce any desired color.

The dried film, it is to be noted, contains about half bitumen and half filler, more or less. It is characterized by being fiexible, waterproof, non-adhesive, having marked non-skid properties, and the bituminous constituents do not flow under pressure so as to penetrate the fabric. By the term bitumenpitch as used in the claims, I include all those substances heretofore referred to in the specification.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional View indicating the fibers after they have been punched through a fundation fabric.

Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating the application of the emulsion coating serving to lock the fibers to the fundation fabric.

It is understood, of course, that the illustrations in the drawing are somewhat exaggerated for the purpose of clearly illustrating the invention.

Fig. 1 is intended to indicate the fibers 1, after they have been punched through the fundation fabric 2. The fibers in this condition, of course, being insecurely associated With the foundation.l Upon application of the coating of emulsion composition 3 to the structure of Fig. 1, the resultant film 3 serves to lock the fibers 1 to the foundation fabric 2, forming a continuous film, as shown, with which the fibers are securely bonded.

I claim as my invention:

l. In the process of producing a covering, the step of locking fibres to a foundation fabric by means of an aqueous emulsion of waterproofing material, said step including regulation of the viscosity of said emulsion to permit application thereof without penetration through said fabric.

2. In the process of roducing a covering, the step of locking needle punched fibres to a foundation fabric by meansv of an aqueous emulsion of waterproofing material, said step including regulation of the viscosity of said emulsion to permit application thereof without penetration throu h said fabric.

3. The process of pro ucing a covering which comprises needle-punchin fibres through a woven fabric, interlockm said libres with said fabric by coating one face of the needle-punched fabric with a non-adhesive bitumen-pitch type emulsion having a viscosity sufliciently high to reclude penetration thereof through the fa ric, and printing a design on the opposite face of the needle-punched fabric.

1.5.` In the process of the step which` includes locking the fibres of a needle-punched fabric to the fundat-ion fabric, said ste comprising coating the needle punched fa ric with an aqueous emulsion of t e bitumen-pitch type having inert filler incorporated therein.

5. The process of producing a covering which comprises needle-punching fibres producing a covering,

fibres with said fabric by coating one face of the needle-punched fabric with an aqueous emulsion of the bitumen-pitch type having inert filler incorporated therein.

6. A method which comprises unitin libres with av Woven base and interlocking said fibres with said base by applying to one surface thereof a compounded emulsion of the bitumen-pitch type having incorporated therewith substantial quantities of filler.

7. A method which comprises 'uniting fibres with a woven base and interlocking said fibres with the base by applying to a surface thereof a compounded bitumenpitch type emulsion having a viscosity sufficiently low to permit efficient application, but sufiiciently high to prevent substantial penetration of said coating through the fibres. Y

8. A method .which comprises dispersing a bitumen-pitch type base and an aqueous medium containing dis ersing media, adding thereto in excess o 20% a non-plastic filler and applying this compounded dispersion to a surface of a fabric comprisino fibres united with a woven base to intel-loci said fibres with said base. U

9. In the process of producing a covering, the step of locking fibres to a fundation fabric by means of an aqueous emulsion of Waterproofing material, said step including regulation of the viscosity of said emulsion b y incorporating inert filler therein, to permit application thereof Without penetration through said fabric.

HAROLD L. LEVIN. 

